|
IBM sets wireless roll-out
|
 |
November 16, 1999: 11:45 a.m. ET
New unit to aid businesses in transferring Web content to cell phones
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - IBM said Tuesday it has formed a new division that will work with business clients to enable them to transmit their Web content to cell phones.
IBM (IBM) plans to target companies such as banks, that provide financial services, and firms using internal business applications, such as Intranets.
The new division will use a wireless standard called WAP (Wireless Application Protocol). WAP, developed by Motorola (MOT), Ericsson and Nokia, allows Internet text, including e-mail, to be accessed from mobile phones.
"WAP phones are reaching the market now and there are not that many services out there, but the market will explode and demand for our services will grow," said Mark Bregman, an IBM e-business executive. "We want to be in the race early on. We've already got 100 customers in the pipeline"
Telecom leaders Ericsson and Nokia already have built WAP phones and consoles, and Nokia currently is launching its Internet 7110 cell phone in Europe.
Ericsson, the world's third-largest maker of mobile phones and the biggest producer of mobile network systems, expects more than 50 percent of all mobile users to use WAP phones by 2001.
IBM will focus initially on medium-to-large companies and charge customers for the services it supplies. It also will charge for hardware and software, such as linking a WAP gateway to a bank's Internet banking system.
"It's still very early days for WAP but it's a bit like the Internet in the 1980s, so once it takes off it will move very rapidly," Bregman said. 
-- from staff and wire reports
|
|
|
|
|
|
IBM
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney
|
|
|
|
 |
|
